High-power LEDs in photopharmacological research

The research group around Wiktor Szymanski at the University Hospital Groningen is intensively engaged in the field of photopharmacology, or more precisely: in the research of safe and efficient treatment methods with active substances.

By incorporating photoactive switches into the bioactive substance molecules, they can only be be activated by illumination with a specific wavelength and therefore be used in a targeted.

To activate the photoswitches, Mountain Photonics, in close cooperation with Lucien Lameijer from the research group, designed a customized system using Prizmatix‘ powerful FC LEDs. The six different wavelengths of the FC-LED are combined into one fiber output using a fiber bundle. This enables the simultaneous, computer-controlled illumination with all six wavelengths at any time and with individually adjustable intensity.

Optics.org has published an exciting description of this photopharmacological research in Groningen in the article „Photopharmacology offers light-controlled drugs and therapies“.

Now there are some news: Regarding the special challenge of constructing photoswitches that react to visible light, the research group was published this summer in “Angewandte Chemie International Edition”: General Principles for the Design of Visible‐Light‐Responsive Photoswitches: Tetra‐ortho‐Chloro‐Azobenzenes (Lameijer et al., 2020).